This article aims to introduce E.V. Ilyenkov’s ‘Dialectics of the Ideal’, first published in unabridged form in 2009, to an English-speaking readership. It does this in three ways: First, it contextualises his intervention in the history of Soviet and post-Soviet philosophy, offering a window into the subterranean tradition of creative theory that existed on the margins and in opposition to official Diamat. It explains what distinguishes Ilyenkov’s philosophy from the crude materialism of Diamat, and examines his relationship to four central (...) figures from the pre-Diamat period: Deborin, Lukács, Vygotsky, and Lenin. Second, it situates his concept of the ideal in relation to the history of Western philosophy, noting Ilyenkov’s original reading of Marx through both Hegel and Spinoza, his criticism of Western theorists who identify the ideal with language, and his effort to articulate an anti-dualist conception of subjectivity. Third, it examines Ilyenkov’s reception in the West, previous efforts to publish his work in the West, including the so-called ‘Italian Affair’, as well as existing scholarship on Ilyenkov in English. (shrink)

Note by editors of Voprosy filosofii: March 2, 1979, marked 85 years since the birth of the distinguished Soviet biochemist Academician Aleksandr Ivanovich Oparin. This splendidanniversary coincides with another remarkable event. Fifty-five years ago, in 1924, A. I. Oparin offered an original solution to a problem that had excited the human mind for centuries — the problem of the origin of life on earth. Oparin's tiny book, published in 1924 by the "Moskovskii rabochii" Press, had tremendous importance for science and (...) world view. Inthe years that followed, Oparin developed its content and won worldwide recognition, helping to establish the fame of Soviet science. (shrink)

The article attempts to interpret the work “Cosmology of the Spirit” by the 20th century Russian philosopher Evald Ilyenkov. The analysis of this early text allows one to assert that its central thesis — “the matter cannot exist without thought” — proves the liberation from dogmatic, naturalism-oriented statements of official dialectical materialism. Liberation occurs as substantiation of the cosmic role of the reason. Liberation assumes poetic form, what is peculiar of this text. Thematically and problematically, it is a cosmological essay, (...) but the thought here is built poetically, what is characteristic of the threshold forms of breaking the tradition and ordinariness. In this sense, “Cosmology of the Spirit” is perceived as finding a way to the main problems of creativity, what became thinking to Evald Ilyenkov. The authors have drawn a conclusion that the poetic character of Ilyenkov’s cosmological reflections proves the work on surmounting both the official dogma and the down-to-earth ordinariness of everyday life. Cosmological problems take the thinker to the space of understanding the mission and sense of thinking rather than understanding the narrow technology utilitarian issues that the instrumental mind is busy. It was noted, that starting from the middle of his essay, Evald Ilyenkov prefers the term “thinking spirit”, what removes the vulgar naturalistic understanding of the matter. It is thinking that becomes an important and effective cosmological actor. This gives grounds to speak of the noological nature of Ilyenkov’s reflections, within which the main topic of his further creative activity is crystallised. (shrink)

This anthology of the work of Baruch de Spinoza presents the text of Spinoza's masterwork, the Ethics, in what is now the standard translation by Edwin Curley. Also included are selections from other works by Spinoza, chosen by Curley to make the Ethics easier to understand, and a substantial introduction that gives an overview of Spinoza's life and the main themes of his philosophy. Perfect for course use, the Spinoza Reader is a practical tool with which to approach one of (...) the world's greatest but most difficult thinkers, a passionate seeker of the truth who has been viewed by some as an atheist and by others as a religious mystic. The anthology begins with the opening section of the Treatise on the Emendation of the Intellect, which has always moved readers by its description of the young Spinoza's spiritual quest, his dissatisfaction with the things people ordinarily strive for--wealth, honor, and sensual pleasure--and his hope that the pursuit of knowledge would lead him to discover the true good. The emphasis throughout these selections is on metaphysical, epistemological, and religious issues: the existence and nature of God, his relation to the world, the nature of the human mind and its relation to the body, and the theory of demonstration, axioms, and definitions. For each of these topics, the editor supplements the rigorous discussions in the Ethics with informal treatments from Spinoza's other works. (shrink)

The latest book by Russian philosopher Sergey Mareev consists of two parts: recollections of his teacher Evald Ilyenkov, and reflections on some of the key themes of Ilyenkov’s philosophical heritage. The author traces several polemical lines related to the problem of the ideal, dialectics of the abstract and the concrete, the principle of historicism, as well as Ilyenkov’s interpretation of Spinoza and Hegel.

In Il’enkov’s “Cosmology of mind,” written in his younger days in the tradition of Spinoza and Engels, the thinking mind appears as a necessary attribute of matter. Like all other main forms of matter in motion, the mind has its cosmic purpose and predestination. Il’enkov argued that it has to close the beginning and the end of the Big Cycle in order to return the dying Universe to its fiery youth. Il’enkov believed that this is the sole way to save (...) the Universe from “thermal death” following the inevitable increase in entropy. (shrink)

For Evald Il’enkov, philosophy is a science of the ideal. Il’enkov spent his entire life researching the logical and historical metamorphoses of the ideal. In general, he considered the ideal as a relation between at least two different things, one of which adequately represents the essence of another. At various times Il’enkov explored quite a few ideal phenomena: forms of value and forms of property, personality and talent, language, music and fine arts, not to mention numerous categories of dialectics, ethics, (...) and aesthetics. The article also addresses the problem: which of these phenomena is the most typical and adequate form of being of the ideal? (shrink)

En 1845 Marx escribió las Tesis sobre Feuerbach, donde subrayaba de manera explícita el lugar fundamental que ocupa la Praxis en su nueva concepción del mundo; y durante el mismo año comenzó la redacción de la parte de La ideología alemana donde también se critica a Feuerbach. Se trata de dos textos de contenido similar, pero que –por la azarosa historia de su respectiva publicación– no pudieron ser cotejados hasta los años veinte del siglo pasado, cuando finalmente vio la luz (...) el segundo de ellos. A partir de esta constatación histórica, el presente artículo se propone mostrar la existencia de una lectura intelectualista de los ambiguos términos que Marx utilizó en las Tesis para definir la Praxis. Las consideraciones históricas serán complementadas, pues, con un exhaustivo análisis filológico de tales equívocos, y con una reflexión sobre sus consecuencias ético-políticas. (shrink)

The article attempts to interpret the work “Cosmology of the Spirit” by the 20th century Russian philosopher Evald Ilyenkov. The analysis of this early text allows one to assert that its central thesis — “the matter cannot exist without thought” — proves the liberation from dogmatic, naturalism-oriented statements of official dialectical materialism. Liberation occurs as substantiation of the cosmic role of the reason. Liberation assumes poetic form, what is peculiar of this text. Thematically and problematically, it is a cosmological essay, (...) but the thought here is built poetically, what is characteristic of the threshold forms of breaking the tradition and ordinariness. In this sense, “Cosmology of the Spirit” is perceived as finding a way to the main problems of creativity, what became thinking to Evald Ilyenkov. The authors have drawn a conclusion that the poetic character of Ilyenkov’s cosmological reflections proves the work on surmounting both the official dogma and the down-to-earth ordinariness of everyday life. Cosmological problems take the thinker to the space of understanding the mission and sense of thinking rather than understanding the narrow technology utilitarian issues that the instrumental mind is busy. It was noted, that starting from the middle of his essay, Evald Ilyenkov prefers the term “thinking spirit”, what removes the vulgar naturalistic understanding of the matter. It is thinking that becomes an important and effective cosmological actor. This gives grounds to speak of the noological nature of Ilyenkov’s reflections, within which the main topic of his further creative activity is crystallised. (shrink)

This review-essay explores approaches to the thought of the creative Soviet Marxist thinker Evald Ilyenkov as discussed in a recent book edited by Alex Levant and Vesa Oittinen, Dialectics of the Ideal: Evald Ilyenkov and Creative Soviet Marxism. The book consists of a series of commentaries and contextual essays which centre on the translated text of Ilyenkov’s Dialectics of the Ideal. The approach the authors take to Ilyenkov’s work differs from previous ones of exploring the totality of Ilyenkov’s thought or (...) eclectic aspects of it. By commenting on and contextualising Ilyenkov’s major text on the Ideal they locate the contribution of Ilyenkov in dialogue with traditions of classical European philosophy, and Western and Soviet Marxism, and in his importance to contemporary issues in philosophy and other disciplines. A deep analysis of Ilyenkov’s dense and often complex text is also given. By doing so the authors highlight the immense contribution of Ilyenkov to contemporary thought. (shrink)

This article compares the concepts of the ideal proposed by two prominent Soviet Marxists: the contemplative concept and that based on the activity approach. The former derives the ideal, along with man himself, from nature and the latter derives the ideal from the dialectics of labour which generates man, his feelings and thoughts and the higher forms of cultural being.

The latest book by Russian philosopher Sergey Mareev consists of two parts: recollections of his teacher Evald Ilyenkov, and reflections on some of the key themes of Ilyenkov’s philosophical heritage. The author traces several polemical lines related to the problem of the ideal, dialectics of the abstract and the concrete, the principle of historicism, as well as Ilyenkov’s interpretation of Spinoza and Hegel.

The article argues for contemporary relevance of "Cosmology of the Spirit" by the outstanding Soviet philosopher Evald Ilyenkov, and explores its historical and intellectual contexts. This short treatise was written in the first half of the 1950s, but only published posthumously in the 1980s as it was too heretical to be published in the author’s lifetime. The text was heretical because of its enormous speculative drive. Addressing the physicist idea of the “entropic death of the universe” and using a combination (...) of materialist dialectics and Spinoza’s concept of attribute, Ilyenkov claimed that thought is a necessary attribute of matter as it is able to prevent the terminal entropy of the universe. The paper uses the ideas of Ilyenkov’s cosmology in order to critically address contemporary currents of “speculative” philosophy. (shrink)

Este texto foi publicado originalmente como capítulo do livro Alguns Problemas da Dialética (Moscou, 1973), e publicado em inglês como capítulo do livro Investigações Filosóficas na U.R.S.S. (Boston, 1975). Posteriormente foi publicado como parte da seção 4 (Verdade Particular) do livro Filosofia e Cultura (Moscou, 1991). Nele, Ilienkov faz uma análise materialista da categoria universal, em contraposição à concepção idealista que Hegel possuía da categoria. Além disso, o autor também se contrapõe à apropriação neopositivista desta categoria, que a entende a (...) partir unicamente da lógica formal, como aquelas características que são comuns a cada objeto/indivíduo e a todos eles. Contrapõe estas perspectivas através de uma contextualização histórica do universal a partir do materialismo histórico-dialético e da realização de uma análise com base na lógica dialética da relação entre as esferas universal, particular e singular, saindo, assim, da aparência e chegando à essência da categoria universal. Este texto está disponível em Domínio Público no Marxists Internet Archive, seção português, sob licensa Creative Commons. (shrink)

Labour is the cornerstone of Marxist understanding of the human being and the nature of his thought. This is true both from the phylogenetic and the ontogenetic point of view. The present article tries to introduce itself in that understanding starting from the ideas of Marx and Engels seen from the prism of the activity theory. The specifically human thought only arises when the individual internalizes the socio-historically developed forms of interaction with reality inscribed in the external objects that constitute (...) the system of culture. This appropriation takes place not only through the use of artifacts, but also through the relationships that the individual establishes with other human beings in daily activity. Near the end of the paper, is made a philosophical analysis of the educational experience with blind-deaf-mute children under the direction of A. I. Meshcheryakov that provides a paradigmatic demonstrative case of the sustained theses. (shrink)